For a team that’s supposed to win the World Series, the Dodgers have an uncommonly high number of questions at this stage of spring training.

Two urgent topics: Will Carl Crawford be ready for Opening Day? And how about Zack Greinke?

“We have to see,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said Thursday. “Carl’s feeling better. We’ve still got some time. If Carl was a guy that we just said, ‘Turn it loose. You can play every day, all you want, hit all you want,’ the chances would be really good, because he’d be ready.

“But in the situation that we’re only going to allow him so much per day takes it back a little bit. Carl’s still optimistic. Until somebody says he cannot do it, then we’re going to be optimistic also. We’re just pleased he’s moving forward.”

Crawford, who was shut down recently because of nerve irritation in his surgically repaired left elbow, took at-bats in a minor-league game Thursday.

Greinke hasn’t pitched in a Cactus League game since March 1 due to inflammation in his right (throwing) elbow. Greinke isn’t scheduled to resume bullpen sessions until next week at the earliest.

With Opening Day barely more than two weeks away, Greinke must return to game action very soon in order to be on track for a regular-season start by the beginning of April. The Dodgers also could slot Greinke as the “fifth starter,” so to speak, and not schedule him to pitch until April 11 against San Diego.

Of Greinke’s status, Mattingly said, “We’ll see where it goes, see how he feels. We’re not going to force anything. We’ve got different scenarios we’ve looked at, that we don’t need to guess at right now — at least publicly.”

The Dodgers’ entire rotation remains in a state of flux. They began the spring with eight starting pitchers: ace Clayton Kershaw, Greinke, Chad Billingsley, Josh Beckett, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Ted Lilly, Aaron Harang and Chris Capuano. It’s possible that one or two could be traded, with Harang and Capuano the most obvious candidates. But because Billingsley and Lilly battled injuries last year — along with Greinke’s new elbow concern — the Dodgers could be forced to delay any trades.

Asked how many starters are certain at this point, Mattingly said, “I don’t think we know. It’s hard to say any of them are really set. I think we have some ideas about what’s going on, different plans. But right now, we’re just trying to figure out how to use them all.”

The Dodgers’ uncertainty is hardly limited to the pitching staff. All-Star center fielder Matt Kemp is hitting only .105 this spring, coming off left shoulder surgery. (Mattingly said his at-bats have been “OK.”) Hanley Ramirez is expected to be the Dodgers’ everyday shortstop but has been playing third base for the Dominican Republic during the World Baseball Classic.

Outfielder Yasiel Puig has been one of the Dodgers’ most impressive position players this spring, with a .988 OPS, but Mattingly said it’s probably not “realistic” for the 22-year-old Cuban defector to make the Opening Day roster.

“Not really, in my mind, if we’re going to be realistic,” Mattingly said when asked about Puig’s chances to make the team. “It’s probably not the best thing for him. He may not agree with that, but I don’t realistically think that’s the best thing for the organization, with a guy who’s had the (low number of minor-league) at-bats he has. But he’s played well. He’s done a lot of good things. We see a lot of things that tell us he’s still young.

“Like we’ve said with a lot of guys, they tell you when they’re ready. If he’s ready, wherever he ends up (in the minor leagues), he’s going to tear it up. If he doesn’t, that tells you he’s maybe not quite ready.”

Puig looms as an intriguing call-up possibility during the season, particularly if Kemp or Crawford is sidelined again due to injury.

Kyle Lohse went through this as a free agent once before. Five years ago on Thursday, he signed a one-year, $4.25 million contract with the St. Louis Cardinals.

This time, Lohse is taking even longer to find a new team.

Lohse, 34, is working out both near his home in Arizona and at a facility operated by his agent, Scott Boras — the Boras Sports Training Institute in Aliso Viejo, Calif. He is facing hitters at the institute, and threw 85 pitches in his most recent outing, Boras said.

The Texas Rangers remain in contact with Lohse, according to major-league sources. Boras said only that multiple teams are interested.

“He’s doing his workouts, and we’ve continued talking with a number of teams,” Boras said. "A lot of teams are evaluating their existing situations, but have called and have interest in Kyle.”

Lohse’s market is slow in part because he is subject to draft-pick compensation, but executives also cite his high asking price — a three-year deal with a “big” average salary, according to one exec.

The Rangers, though, continue to make sense for Lohse on a couple of levels.

Two of their starting pitchers, left-hander Martin Perez and righty Colby Lewis, are expected to be out until early May with injuries. Another of their starters, righty Alexi Ogando, is converting from the bullpen to the rotation.

The Rangers also are in better position than most clubs to forfeit a draft pick for Lohse. They select 24th – a relatively low position – and gained the 30th choice when they lost free-agent outfielder Josh Hamilton to the Angels.

Draft-pick compensation for Lohse would be eliminated if he waited to sign until after the draft, which takes place between June 6 and 8.

Boras continues to express confidence that the pitcher will sign before then.

MIAMI – For all that is now quantifiable in baseball, there are still some things that cannot be measured. The effect of St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina on a pitching staff is one of them.

‘Now that I get to watch him a little bit, he’s the best,” said former major-league first baseman Carlos Delgado, Team Puerto Rico’s hitting coach in the World Baseball Classic.

“He’ll go to a pitcher and tell him, ‘Make a pitch. I’ll block it. It’s on me.’ He’ll take that responsibility,” Delgado said. “When you’ve got a younger guy on the mound, and he’s a little hesitant about bouncing a breaking ball to put a hitter away, and you’ve got the best catcher in the game that goes to the mound and says, ‘Finish your pitch. Don’t worry about it. I’ll do it. I’ll block it.’ . . . it gives pitchers that confidence that they can finish their pitches.

“They don’t even have to think. Throw what he puts down. Trust him. It takes a lot of weight off them.”

Puerto Rico allowed only seven runs in three games in the first round of the tournament, and their opponents included two powerhouses, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Even Tuesday night, in a 7-1 loss to Team USA in the opener of the second round, Puerto Rico stayed close before the U.S. scored three runs in the eighth inning.

So, how do you quantify any of this?

Molina ranked eighth in the majors with a 3.60 catcher’s ERA last season, but the flaw in that statistic, as noted by sabermetricians, is selection bias; a catcher’s ERA is largely contingent on the quality of his pitchers.

Team Puerto Rico’s pitching staff in the WBC is mostly young and less than major-league caliber. The Cardinals, too, are going with younger pitchers this season; they’ve lost Chris Carpenter to injury and almost certainly will lose free agent Kyle Lohse. But the Molina advantage allows his teams to take such chances.

Reds left-hander Aroldis Chapman is destined to remain a closer, at least in the opinion of one rival scout who saw him start a minor-league game on Monday.

“I hope they do start him, but they’re crazy if they do,” said the scout, who works for another National League club. “It’s Joba Chamberlain all over again.

“His velocity dropped off in the second inning. He couldn’t get his off-speed stuff over the plate consistently. No question in my mind, he’s the closer.”

The Reds, for the second straight spring, are auditioning Chapman as a starter. But manager Dusty Baker and pitching coach Bryan Price prefer him to remain the closer, according to Hal McCoy of Fox Sports Ohio.

Chapman topped out at 93 mph on Monday and consistently threw 91, the scout said. His average reading as a reliever last season was 98.2 mph, according to Fangraphs.com.

Right-hander Mike Leake pitched in the same game, starting for Class AA Pensacola while Chapman started for Class AAA Louisville. Leake, according to the scout, was at 88-92 mph, and threw four pitches for strikes.

Welcome to the Nationals, Denard Span, and enjoy your new corner outfielders, Bryce Harper in left and Jayson Werth in right.

“They got their own sign language out there,” Span, the Nationals’ new center fielder, said Monday morning. “I’m trying to pick up on it, just the communication part of it, what they like to do, what they like to say to each other.”

Sign language?

“Jayson Werth, it's like he plays charades out there,” Span continued. “He’s out there, giving me all different types of hand signals. I think the last game we played with each other, I looked at him like, ‘What are you doing?’ He just started laughing.

“I think he was just playing with me. Somebody was on the mound, he was looking at his watch, going like this (raising his hands above his head). I got back to the dugout and said, ‘What the heck were you trying to tell me?’ And he said, ‘Man, this guy is a human rain delay.’ I’m just like, ‘You’ve got to give me some note cards or something, so I can know what is going on.’”

Werth, smiling, said that he is only trying to welcome Span, whom the Nationals acquired from the Twins last Nov. 29 for pitching prospect Alex Meyer.

“This is a pretty loose club. I don’t think he’s ever played on a team as loose as this,” Werth said. “I’m just messing with him a little bit. But that’s part of it. You get to learn each other. You’ve got to start somewhere.”

Actually, there is a method to Werth’s madness.

Outfielders stand too far away from each other to communicate verbally, so Werth said that he indeed used hand signals to relay messages to his previous center fielders, Shane Victorino with the Phillies and Harper with the Nationals.

“When I had Victorino in center, he’s a mess,” Werth said. “He has so much energy. For him to stand still or not talk or not communicate . . .

“Bryce, I had to lead Bryce around like a little puppy dog for half the year (in 2012). And he figured it out. Now Denard seems like he knows what he’s doing. I don’t have to position him every pitch.”

Still, it’s spring training. And Werth is a little bored.

Outfielders, as Werth noted, “are a long way from the action.” And Grapefruit League exhibitions, particularly in the early spring, can get monotonous.

During the season, Werth said that his signals are on point. But for now, he is keeping things fresh and fun while trying to engage Span.

Span, according to Werth, doesn’t talk at all in the outfield. Harper, according to Span, does not engage in Werth-like antics.

“All three of us are on the same page. But you know Jayson. He does some different things,” Span said, smiling.

Span should stay alert. Werth doesn’t plan to stop.

“Denard looks at me and just shakes his head half the time,” Werth said. “I laugh, and I look over at Bryce, and he’s laughing. We’re having a good time out there.”

“I break in all his gloves for him,” Shields said, smiling. “I texted him the other day: ‘What are you going to do without me?’”

The glove story dates back to when Shields and Upton were minor leaguers with the Tampa Bay Rays. Shields, 31, and Upton, 28, both were drafted by the Rays, and played together at Double A and Triple A.

Now, for the first time, they are in different organizations.

Upton signed a five-year, $75.25 million free-agent contract with the Atlanta Braves on Nov. 29, and the Rays traded Shields to the Royals 10 days later.

“Every year when I came in, I would take my gloves out of my lockers and give them straight to him,” Upton recalled. “He would give them back to me a week before the season started. I kind of miss him right now.”

Shields joked that he had an ulterior motive for taking such good care of Upton’s gloves, saying, “That way, I knew he was going to catch it.”

As for the glove in his locker, Shields said he had kept one of Upton’s discards to use as his “shagging glove” with the Royals.

“We went golfing this off-season,” Shields said. “He was like, ‘What am I going to do without you? I’m going to have send gloves to your clubhouse so you can break ‘em in.’ I said, ‘I’ll break ‘em in after the second road trip of the year when I face you.’”

Luca Panerati is slated to start for Team Italy on Saturday night against Team USA, in a game that could eliminate the Americans from the World Baseball Classic.

A brief bio: Panerati was born in Grossetto, Italy. He pitched in the Cincinnati farm system from 2008 until 2011, when he was released. The 23-year-old left-hander spent last season in his homeland, pitching for Bologna of the Italian Baseball League, and has contemplated the possibility of playing in Japan.

Panerati’s role model in this itinerant pitching life?

Naturally, R.A. Dickey.

“I was reading R.A. Dickey’s book,” Panerati said Friday, as he stood on the field before Italy’s 14-4 triumph over Canada. “It’s a crazy story. That really made me realize if you get released by a team, it doesn’t mean you don’t belong. You decide when it’s over – just you.

“Nobody can tell you that you can’t pitch. Nobody can tell you that you can’t run. Nobody can tell you that you can’t hit. It’s just you. You’ve got to believe in yourself. You have to be confident in what you’re doing. It’s a small edge between being confident and cocky. If you keep it to yourself, it helps a lot.”

Dickey’s personal and professional journey to last year’s National League Cy Young Award has become familiar to baseball fans throughout the world, but his signature knuckleball was less effective than usual in Friday’s loss to Mexico.

Panerati said he would love to meet Dickey during the tournament.

“I would say (to him that) he has an amazing story, and it was a great idea to tell everybody,” Panerati said. “I don’t think everybody has perseverance he had, completely changing his life, pretty much, from a conventional pitcher to the knuckleball.

“It’s not just about baseball. It’s about a life revolving around baseball, how his family supports him. It would be awesome to meet him and say congratulations that he made it and won the Cy Young Award last year.”

Ryan is pondering whether to remain as CEO of the Texas Rangers, according to major-league sources. But even if he departs over an apparent power struggle, Ryan likely will balk at returning to the Astros, according to two major-league sources familiar with his thinking.

The Astros, under new ownership and a new front office, purged many of Ryan’s friends and associates last fall. In some cases, the Astros declined to renew the contracts of their employees. In others, they offered pay cuts that were rejected, sources said.

“No way Nolan will work for them,” one source said.

Ryan, 66, pitched for the Astros from 1980 to ’88. After retiring, he owned the team’s Double A and Triple A affiliates and served as a special assistant to the general manager before joining the Rangers in 2008.

He would resist any overtures from new owner Jim Crane out of loyalty to his old Astros’ associates, many of whom were longtime employees of the team, sources said.

Those associates include:

• Former bullpen assistant coach Stretch Suba (36 years with the club).

CLEARWATER, Fla. – The two ex-Rangers in the Phillies’ clubhouse, third baseman Michael Young and reliever Mike Adams, aren’t privy to the political maneuverings within their former team’s front office.

All Young and Adams know is this: If Nolan Ryan resigns as chief executive officer, as one published report recently suggested, the team’s fans will be upset.

“I have no idea the ins and outs – that’s obviously Rangers business,” Young said Thursday morning. “But after 12 years there, I have a pretty good understanding of what the fans like. When it comes to all things Rangers, Nolan is at the top of the list of everything that fans like.”

Adams, a native Texan, agreed.

“Nolan is a legend -- a Texas legend, and not just Texas baseball, but the state of Texas,” Adams said. “(They would) lose almost face of the franchise, really. He hasn’t played (since 1993) and he’s still pretty much the face of the franchise. If it’s personal reasons, that’s a totally different story. But if he’s pushed out, I think it’s going to be perceived badly.”

The departure of Ryan almost certainly would not affect attendance – as Adams put it, “the fans ain’t going to stop going because Nolan is not with the organization. Still, the fans aren’t the only ones who would miss Ryan.

The Rangers’ players would, too.

“He was around a lot in spring training. He went to pretty much every game,” Young said. “He’d be in the dugout. You’d bump into him and say hello. He was always available if you’d want to talk baseball, which is what baseball players do.

“In spring training, we’d sit in the kitchen, Nolan would come in and tell stories of when (Robin) Ventura charged him and Bo (Jackson) pulled him out of the pile when he was about to black out. It was always great to talk to a Hall of Famer, bounce ideas off him, let him do the same to you.”

Young said that Ryan served as a particularly valuable sounding board for him during the 2010-11 offseason, when Young asked for a trade during a dispute with general manager Jon Daniels, saying he had been “misled and manipulated.”

Ryan and Daniels had said that Young “changed his mind” about his willingness to become a DH and super-utility player after the team’s signing of free-agent third baseman Adrian Beltre. Young took exception to those remarks, and a visit from Ryan helped clear the air.

“He came to my house two nights before I was going to drive to spring training. He heard me out, heard what my concerns were,” Young recalled.

“The reason it was helpful is because at that point Nolan understood that it had nothing to do with baseball. I had already agreed to my role. But there was a lot of stuff that had happened behind the scenes that led to it going south. It was good to be heard out, simple as that. And I appreciated it.”

Adams’ relationship with Ryan was different. He grew up in Sinton, Texas, and attended Texas A&M-Kingsville. Ryan was his hero, and Adams, during his time with the Rangers, found it difficult to even approach him.

“It was one of those, 'He’s Nolan Ryan. You don’t want to bother him too much,'” Adams said. “I was a Texas kid also. He was my pitching idol when I was growing up.

“I was more in awe than anything whenever I was around him. It was huge for me, him being there, being part of the organization, just to say I know Nolan, and count him as a friend.

Mike Trout’s agent, in his talks with the Los Angeles Angels, implied that the outfielder wanted a $1 million salary for 2013, according to major-league sources.

Such a figure would have been the largest ever paid to a player with fewer than two years of service. But Trout’s agent, Craig Landis, could have asked for $25 million and it wouldn’t have mattered.

Trout, as a pre-arbitration player, had no leverage. And the Angels, rather than reward Trout for his historic rookie season, simply followed a scale that they use for all of their pre-arb players, sources say.

The team renewed Trout for $510,000 – the top of their scale for one-plus players, but just $20,000 above the major-league minimum. Outfielder Mark Trumbo agreed to the top of the Angels’ scale for two-plus players - $540,000.

One source said that the Angels actually made Trout a higher offer than $510,000, then renewed him as a punitive measure when he would not accept. Another source, however, said the Angels did not negotiate in any fashion, refusing to deviate from their scale.

Whatever happened, the real question is why the Angels weren’t willing to make an exception for Trout. They could have broken their scale for a player who won the AL Rookie of the Year and finished second in the MVP voting. They also could have gone above scale if they awarded bonuses to 0-to-3 players who achieve certain honors, the way other teams do.

Ryan Howard’s $900,000 salary in 2007, coming off a National League MVP award, remains the highest ever awarded to a player with less than two years of service. Buster Posey received $575,000 in ’11 after winning the NL Rookie of the Year award and helping the San Francisco Giants win the World Series.

The entire episode with Trout likely will be forgotten if he and the Angels reach agreement on a long-term contract in the near future. The team has every right to wield the hammer on players before they reach arbitration. After that, the great ones get paid in a big way.

Team USA will gather Sunday in Phoenix to begin preparations for the World Baseball Classic, but there’s an unexpected item of business for general manager Joe Garagiola Jr. and manager Joe Torre to address before then.

USA must find a new relief pitcher, after Cleveland Indians closer Chris Perez was forced to withdraw from the tournament because of a right shoulder strain.

“He was really pumped up for this, so this is doubly disappointing,” Garagiola said. “The player’s health and the season are the paramount concern, and he and the Indians will do what they can to make sure he’s ready for Opening Day. It’s too bad for Team USA, and I feel badly for him.

“From the minute Joe (Torre) reached out to him, last December or January, he was enthusiastic, sending out tweets. We’ll miss him. We wish he was part of the team.”

Garagiola said he expects to replace Perez with a reliever, so there’s no sense in wondering if Justin Verlander or Clayton Kershaw will suddenly change his mind and join the team.

Ideally, the U.S. would have an elite closer to pair with Atlanta’s Craig Kimbrel, who may be unavailable for certain games because of WBC pitch restrictions. But Garagiola pointed out that a number of relievers on the U.S. roster have closed in the big leagues.

“I don’t know how terribly important it is (to have another established closer),” Garagiola said. “We have a lot of people on the pitching staff who have closing experience: Kimbrel, (Heath) Bell. (Luke) Gregerson has closed. (Glen) Perkins has closed. I think we’ve got a lot of closers.

“If we add another one, that’s great. If we don’t, we have plenty of people already. With versatility of the bullpen, I don’t think we’re limited to finding a ‘quote-unquote’ closer.”

A number of the top American-born closers — Jim Johnson, Jason Motte, Joe Nathan and Joel Hanrahan — previously declined offers to pitch in this year’s WBC, according to reports.

Arizona Diamondbacks closer J.J. Putz could emerge as one candidate to replace Perez. Putz pitched for USA in the ’09 WBC and is already training in nearby Scottsdale with his team. The Diamondbacks likely would support Putz’s participation, as the organization has been heavily involved in planning for the tournament and will host first-round games at Chase Field and Salt River Fields.

USA has nine relievers at the moment: Kimbrel, Bell, Gregerson, Perkins, Jeremy Affeldt, Mitchell Boggs, Steve Cishek, Tim Collins and Vinnie Pestano. Derek Holland, a starter with the Texas Rangers, could serve in a bullpen role if he’s not chosen for the rotation during pool play.

USA opens WBC play Friday, March 8, against Mexico at Chase Field. After failing to reach the championship game in the first two tournaments, some observers have suggested the U.S. faces intense pressure to win the title this time.

Garagiola doesn’t see it that way.

“I don’t think so,” he said, when asked if he feels the weight of those expectations. “Joe and I were talking today. We’re just excited. There’s been a lot of work put into this on everybody’s part, including Tony Clark at the MLBPA. It’s exciting to know that, in a couple days, these guys are going to be here, on the field, and we’re going to see this team as a team.

“Joe was saying today that he’s getting the managerial butterflies again. We all feel the same way. It’s going to be a really special moment, when that pitcher winds up, we look in the other dugout, and there’s Mexico. The players are fired up. Once they get here in the same clubhouse, they’re going to look around, saying, ‘Wow, this is a pretty good team.’”

JUPITER, Fla. – At this time last year, Mike Trout was 20. Bryce Harper was 19. By the time the season ended, they were Rookies of the Year.

Now, the most hyped minor-league outfielder is in the St. Louis Cardinals’ spring camp. Oscar Taveras is 20. A native of the Dominican Republic, he is the consensus No. 3 prospect in the game, according to Baseball America.

And Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak acknowledged Sunday that Taveras could join Trout and Harper in the major leagues before the 2013 season is over.

“I certainly wouldn’t bet against it at this point,” Mozeliak said in an interview with FOXSports.com. “He’s a tremendous talent. The thing he has going against him right now is we have a very veteran outfield. For him to get at-bats, he’s much better off developing at his age.

“If I knew he’d play every day, it might be a different question.”

In other words: If the Cardinals didn’t have seven-time All-Star Carlos Beltran in right field, Taveras could be competing for a spot in the Opening Day lineup despite not playing above Double-A. Taveras can play center field, as well, but Jon Jay is established as the starter there.

Beltran, though, is scheduled to become a free agent after this season. So Taveras, who turns 21 this June, is poised to have a regular spot in the Cardinals’ outfield by 2014.

“He’s a tremendous talent,” Mozeliak said. “When his day comes, it’ll come. He’s an offensive player. He’s just one of those guys who hits the ball hard and often and gets positive results.

“When you look at him from a high level, he’s a complete baseball payer. He’s still developing defensively. You have to remind yourself: He’s 20. He has all the tools to be great, but he still has to learn the game and to respect the game. If he does all that, he has a tremendous future.”

Taveras amassed a .953 OPS with 23 home runs and 94 RBI in 124 games with the Cardinals’ Double-A affiliate in Springfield, Mo., last year.

JUPITER, Fla. – Juan Pierre signed a one-year, $1.6 million deal with the Miami Marlins this winter. He hopes it’s not the last contract of his career.

Pierre, 35, said in an interview Saturday that he hopes to play beyond this year. Pierre is coming off a successful season with the Philadelphia Phillies, in which he batted .307 and stole 37 bases.

“I would like to play as long as I still enjoy the game,” Pierre said. “Last year, I signed a minor-league deal. So, it wasn’t like it was guaranteed. I had to make the team.

“I’m not high on people’s list. I don’t think I’m in a position to say, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll play three or four more years.’ I’m not in that position. I have to go one year at a time.”

Pierre last played for the Marlins in 2005, before he was dealt to the Chicago Cubs. Now he’s back for a second tour as the everyday left fielder on a rebuilt Miami team.

What’s been the key to Pierre’s longevity? The answer, perhaps not surprisingly, is that he runs during the offseason. A lot. He does it in short bursts, ladder workouts, and with resistance bungees. Pierre doesn’t bother with distance training, saying it’s been years since he ran a continuous mile.

“I know I’m at the stage when people are waiting for me to slow up. The work I do in the offseason, half of it is just (about) staying healthy.”

Pierre was one of the most sought-after free agents in baseball after the 2006 season, when he signed a five-year, $44 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Fellow outfield speedster Michael Bourn just agreed to a comparable deal with Cleveland (four years, $48 million) after much debate over his appropriate market value.

“Guys that run, you get to 31 and (teams) shy away from guys like that,” Pierre said. “Bourn is 30. I was 28 when I signed my deal with the Dodgers, right in the prime. It’s a tough thing, because power never goes on you. No one’s saying that about Adam Dunn or Ryan Howard or (Albert) Pujols. You’re going to hit for power. You’re not going to one day hit the ball like I do.

“But the legs, it’s a big thing. Bourn is super fast. I think he takes care of his body pretty good. That’s the big thing. As a runner, you have to do more than the sluggers do. When we get on, it takes a lot out of us. We’ve got to dive back to bags. We’ve got to steal. All of that stuff takes its toll.”

Asked if he thought Bourn’s deal was fair, Pierre said, “I don’t know what he was after, but that’s a good chunk of money, I believe. From my vantage point, that was a nice deal – especially for a guy who doesn’t hit home runs. Let’s call it what it is: Most guys who get the big bucks are run producers, unless it was Ichiro, and Ichiro’s in a different class. Other than Ichiro, I don’t know of a pure singles guy who got a whole lot of money (in comparison to) a run producer.”

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Chris Colabello, a non-roster invitee with the Minnesota Twins, is probably the happiest man in baseball this spring.

It would be trite to say Colabello, 29, has come out of nowhere. He actually comes from everywhere. Colabello grew up mostly in Massachusetts but spent several years of his childhood in Italy before attending Division II Assumption College in Worcester, Mass. Then he began a seven-year career as a slugging corner infielder in the independent Canadian-American Association, with teams in Worcester and Nashua, N.H.

Colabello didn’t play his first game in affiliated minor-league baseball until last year at age 28, when the Twins signed him after Colabello’s agent, Brian Charles, sent scouting footage of him to the team. The right-handed Colabello put together a strong season at Double-A New Britain – an .836 OPS in 134 games – and helped Team Italy win the European Baseball Championship last September. He continued his power hitting for Guasave of the Mexican Pacific League during the offseason.

Now he has a locker in the Twins’ major-league clubhouse – right next to Justin Morneau’s – and will join Team Italy for the World Baseball Classic early next month.

“There’s not too many guys happier than I am right now – with everything,” a beaming Colabello said this week. “Being in big-league camp, getting to (play in the WBC).

“I signed with Detroit in ’06. They let me go right out of spring training. I had signed out of a tryout camp. I spent the next six years in indy ball. Before you knew it, the Twins came calling in 2012, and I felt like the luckiest guy in the world.

“Believe me: The smiles I have on my face all day, every day, are not fake. It’s very easy for me to come here and appreciate everything and be thankful to this organization.”

Colabello’s father, Lou, was born and raised in Massachusetts but played in Italy’s domestic baseball league for several years after college. Lou joined the Italian national team – as some Italian-Americans are permitted to do – and pitched for Team Italy against Team USA at Dodger Stadium during the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Lou Colabello met his wife, Silvana, while playing in Rimini. Although Chris was born in the U.S., the family returned to Italy when he was young so Lou could work as an executive and coach in both baseball and basketball. So, Chris played for Team Italy in the European Cup when he was 11 and 12 years.

“Talk about getting treated like royalty when you’re 11 years old,” he said. “We went to Paris one year and then the Czech Republic the next year. We won the European Cup both years. Wearing the Italian uniform is really special for me.”

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Few expect much from the Colorado Rockies’ pitching staff this season, and understandably so. The Rockies had a 5.49 team ERA in 2012, the worst in the National League by nearly a run per nine innings.

Offensively, though, the Rockies should be a handful for opposing staffs — and they’re deep enough in hitters to possibly swing a trade for another starting pitcher before Opening Day.

Catching is an area of particular surplus for Colorado. Wilin Rosario, Ramon Hernandez and Jordan Pacheco are on the team’s 40-man roster. Yorvit Torrealba is a non-roster invitee to spring training. Hernandez, earning $3.2 million, is likely the one the Rockies most would like to trade.

The team wants to add one more capable starting pitcher, major-league sources say — someone who could throw 150 to 175 innings and produce a ERA in the 4.50-4.75 range. Someone like right-hander Josh Fogg, who pitched for the Rockies in 2006-07.

Even pitchers of such modest quality are difficult to obtain. But even beyond catcher, the Rockies possess multiple options at every spot on the field, creating trade possibilities:

Will such depth lead to a trade? Difficult to say. But with Tulowitzki now recovered from left groin surgery, one club official says the offense could be “prolific.” And for the Rockies, that would be a start.